Serving UC Students: A Message from the UCSS President

By Seng Leab, UCSS President

As the President of the 4th Mandate of the University of Cambodia Student Senate (UCSS), I would like to thank all students for the confidence that they bestowed and entrusted in me to hold this position. It was a great honor for me to serve UC students, the community and the University. The 4th Mandate of UCSS entered office on January 1, 2010, with one newly elected President, Vice-President ifor Administrative Affairs, Vice-President for Technical Affairs, Treasurer, and Secretary. Ten other members served on UCSS.

All my colleagues and I worked very hard to achieve the goals and projects of UCSS. We devoted our time, contributed our ideas, and were actively involved in the projects. Among the nine projects we initially proposed, we have completed eight. Unfortunately, we could not run the seventh project due to time constraints. At the time, the University conducted scholarship exams so we could not host a Pchom Benh ceremony. The UCSS officers decided to run a different project, a book drive for Baphnom High School. In total, we accomplished nine projects:

1. “International Scholarship and Career
Development” workshop
2. The formation of the first-ever
University of Cambodia Football
Club (UCFC)
3. Khmer New Year Celebration and
Fundraising
4. The first student concert to celebrate
the seventh anniversary of UC
5. Student Discussions at the “Welcome
University Life” series
(Successful Study Skills, Student
Ethics, and International
Scholarships)
6. UC Welcome Week
7. Field trip to study Cambodian culture
and educate high school students
8. Book donation to the library of
Baphnom High School
9. Christmas Celebration with
performances, singing, games, short
stories, and food

During the last month of my leadership, I was very busy helping to arrange the Christmas Celebration project, writing a proposal, and preparing documents. I was also involved in the UC Football Club (UCFC) and had to draft and edit the statute for UCFC. Even though I was busy, I still enjoyed doing team work with my friends and will never forget this great experience.

I would like to congratulate the newly elected officers of the 5th Mandate of UCSS for their great performance during the electoral campaign. Before they enter into office in the New Year, I would like to share some experience and advice with them. UCSS is volunteer work, so you have to devote your time and effort without expectations of monetary reward. However, you will get a great experience and knowledge as a result of your work and from your supportive advisers. You have to balance the competing interests in whatever decisions you make. You get criticisms from some people, while you get enthusiasm from others. You have to remember that all projects must fulfill three main interests, namely students, society and university interests. To be successful on a team, you have to build strong relationships in the group and spend your spare time with each other, so you can understand each other and achieve the common goal. To help accomplish tasks smoothly, you should divide your team into different departments with different responsibilities. For example, have a department for education, culture and art, sports, student problem solving, and so on. This kind of decentralization will enable you to be more success in all projects. You have to use your resources efficiently, and aim for transparency and accountability.

To this end, I hope the 5th Mandate UCSS will plan and manage beneficial projects for students and have remarkable results. I would like to thank my colleagues for their cooperation and effort, our supportive advisors for their time, and all UC officers and students for their participation. I wish them good health and success in all of their endeavors.